Demo Discussion Thread

[Northnovas]

Well I finally downloaded and was pleasantly surprised. P4 2.8 single 7600 GT most of the graphics set to high and had good game flow. Slow on the start and end but the game play it self flowed.
Still trying to get used to the controls but I liked what I saw and I think that is close enough to the Napoleonic Era you will get. The artillery can be powerful.
Like I mentioned the controls were quirky with the zoom but I will get the feel. It was a bit fast at times but I can see the potential especially with the help of our mod community in the Org.

Looking forward to the release.

[Murmandamus]

I've only given the demo a quick go so far, but I'm enjoying it. I'm gonna need to get some more books do some learning. It was the same with Shogun and RTW though, so I look forward to it :)

As with others, I got lost in micro on the sea battle the first couple times trying to manage all the broadsides and ship positioning individually. I figured that can't be how it's done, so I just grouped them, clicked on the other side of the enemy and observed. They did a much better job on their own, and with them grouped they all just follow each other in line. Much easier.

I was disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any wind and that the ships can just go in any direction. Feels a bit silly sailing in neat circles around the enemy. Pirates! did a reasonable job of accessible sea battles with wind IIRC. It made the battles more tactical when you could get the advantage from being upwind, as well as having to tack etc.

One thing I did notice is that when enemy ships were fleeing they would still fire on my ships, while my ships that were fleeing would stop firing. I've also had ships just sink all of a sudden when not being fired upon for ages. I'm guessing there is some random element to whether a ship sinks when it has hull damage.

I haven't had the terrible load times that many are reporting. 20-30 seconds tops for me, so maybe I got lucky there. Either that or it's a cpu dependent problem (decompressing assets perhaps). I've got an E8400 and the people with longer loading seem to have slower cpu's.

New battle tactics, sea battles. Totally different vibe to swords and arrows. I'm anticipating this more highly than I did RTW or M1/2 :)

[Belgolas]

Load time in any game or any aplication has to do with mainly hard drive speed, cpu and ram. The most important one for load times is the hard drive. If you are on a laptop it will take longer because your hard drive is slower.

[pevergreen]

I disagree, my laptop is a 200gb 7200rpm.

[Polemists]

It depends on speed of your laptop.

I have a duo core and have only a minute or less load times. All depends on speed, memory and configuration of your system, whether desktop or laptop.

Though yes a laptop and desktop of same speed the desktop does load faster usually.

[Megas Methuselah]

Despite that, my laptop is better than the common, cheap desktops employed by most Orgahs. Thus, I experience fast loading times, and am proud to flaunt it.

[Sir Beane]

Despite that, my laptop is better than the common, cheap desktops employed by most Orgahs. Thus, I experience fast loading times, and am proud to flaunt it.

Are we comparing the size of our hardware now?

[Haxorsist]

I tried a couple more naval battles and I'm getting a little better. I managed to capture two ships, one of them was the admiral's flagship, without losing any of my ships.

[PBI]

So, finally got the demo to download properly. My thoughts:

Tried Brandywine twice so far. First time I went straight for the defended crossing, sniped the artillery with my light infantry, and sent my heavies straight across to slug it out with the enemy foot. A close battle, and my infantry took heavy losses, but eventually I ground the Americans down and they retreated and reformed a line around the farmhouse when their general was killed by musket fire. I brought up my horse artillery on the flank of my line and started firing; this seemed to cause the remaining enemy infantry to mount a last-ditch attack rather than sit there under fire. The enemy infantry seemed a bit too willing to expose their flanks to enfilading fire from my line. After a final siege and shootout at the farmhouse, the last American unit routed, giving me a close victory. The second time I did it "properly", taking the undefended crossing and approaching the enemy farmhouse from the other side giving a much more decisive victory.

Load times seem quite long, but not quite as interminable as some people seem to be finding (I set all settings to minimum before starting since my graphics card barely scrapes past the minimum spec). Having watched some of the videos I'm relieved to see cavalry don't seem all that effective against line infantry except from the flanks, and that a close-range volley really will decimate a cavalry charge. Some enemy behaviour seems odd; in the second battle, the Americans sensibly sent their light infantry to waylay me at the crossing, deploying stakes, but bizarrely did so facing the wrong way, thus promptly getting slaughtered by my cavalry. Artillery deployment is giving me headaches; in both battles one of my horse artillery seemed to get "stuck" with one gun limbered, the other not, thus being unable to move or fire. The American artillery didn't move at all throughout the battle, possibly 'cause it was always in range to fire at my men (though fairly ineffectually); would have been nice to see it integrate with the infantry a bit better and redeploy once the direction of the battle had shifted. Battlefield is pleasingly huge, and the enemy seemed to make good use of hills and woods to ambush my flanks.

On the naval battle, I apparently am somewhat of a landlubber since on my first two attempts I was soundly beaten, though I won quite convincingly the third time. The tactic I found finally worked was to group my whole fleet and rush to try to head off the French line. My flagship passed in front of the lead French ship and my others either passed between the first and second ship and turned to starboard or turned just before the French line to fire on it from the port side (ha! Get me with my fancy naval terminology!) Concentrating broadsides from all my ships on the lead French ship was enough to sink it, a tactic repeated on each of the following ships, eventually leading to victory without the loss of any of my ships, much to my surprise.

I find it hard to pin down what I did differently the third time, except that my ships seemed to manage to physically block the progress of the French column, preventing them from landing successive broadsides on my flagship as they had done previously. Pathfinding seems a bit off, in all three battles I found the encounter seemed to result in both fleets getting snarled up in a big confused mess, although perhaps this is supposed to happen. Regarding ammunition, I stuck to roundshot on my successful attempt, tried grape and chain previously with little effect. I suspect the latter two are best used when your fleet is at a clear advantage, to maximise chances of capturing enemy ships without sinking them, while roundshot is better when you simply want to make sure you win the battle. For targeting, I found it more effective to simply give ships movement orders and let them worry about firing rather than ordering them to target specific ships, the latter seems to result in them wheeling about to fire both broadsides alternately.

The damage system, of both sides of the ship having a separate health bar, seems a little odd; I can't quite figure out whether it is better to double-up on a ship, so that the crew cannot return fire against both sides at once, or to simply concentrate all fire on a single side to drop its health as fast as possible. Similarly, I can't quite figure out if raking fire is as effective as it should be, since it seems to result in both more shots missing due to the smaller target, and to the damage being shared out between both sides rather than on a single one. Others thoughts/observations on this would be welcome. Weather gauge (being upwind of the enemy, giving an edge in mobility) seems to be helpful, but not essential. There seems to be an option to set the amount of sail each of your ships carries; has anyone found a reason to have this set at anything other than full sail at all times? Ships look very pretty, even on lowest settings, but then we already knew this.

Both battles were fun, although I can see naval tactics are going to take some getting used to. Land battle was definitely good apart from the eccentric artillery behaviour, I struggle to see why so many people seem to be of the opinion that encounters based primarily on ranged combat would ruin the series. In short, I saw no reason not to buy the game; I may even buy it and attempt to make do with my weedy graphics card for a while while I look for a decent upgrade.

[The New Che Guevara]

I'd love to talk about the demo... it's got a nice mouse...


I've downloaded steam and the demo but it crashes on the opening thing with like SEGA copyright and Bink

[Sir Beane]

I'd love to talk about the demo... it's got a nice mouse...


I've downloaded steam and the demo but it crashes on the opening thing with like SEGA copyright and Bink

It seems like you aren't alone. Many people have this problem and no one yet has found a way to fix it.

[Alexander XXI]

The demo was very good, a nice appetizer.

[The New Che Guevara]

It seems like you aren't alone. Many people have this problem and no one yet has found a way to fix it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... oh well... back to the medieval times for me

[Megas Methuselah]

Yes. Yes, the demo was very good. Awesome, in fact. Especially the grenadiers...

[Lokar]

Just played through the demo a few times, this is what I noticed:
The little cadre of officer, flag carrier, drummer and/or bugler that lead every unit. These guys look great especially the flag carrier! (scenes from so many movies come to mind). The modding potential for this is huge. I love watching the officer pull out his pistol to put some lead downrange. The animations are also good fun to watch, and are neither too generic (RTW) or too slow (M2TW). The cavalry animations in particular are vastly improved over M2TW. I noticed a few glitches here and there, especially in a bayonet charge, but I'm not concerned, I think it will be fixed in a patch. Remember the first version of the M2TW demo where every other soldier was doing that spin attack? The uniforms look great and accurate as far as I can tell, and there's not a single neon turquoise or hot pink pajama to be found among them. Some of the uniforms in the past have had more pastels than an episode of Miami Vice. Overall I thought the demo was excellent, it looks like Empire is going to be a great addition to the series. I can't wait to play the full campaign, as I always find the historical battles to be sort of meh. They just don't have the same sense of epicness that you get from leading the same troops on the campaign map as on the battle map.

[Tomisama]

What are your best demo scores?

The Historical Battles Competition is collecting winning scores for both demos (take a picture if you can).

This is just for fun, and to practice making entries into what will be a monthly Org badge competition, after game release.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=279

[Zoring]

Why do Cannons have unlimited ammunition? Is that intentional?

[quadalpha]

Why do Cannons have unlimited ammunition? Is that intentional?

Yes. Theory is that battles in this period didn't last long enough for the artillery to use up their supply.

[IRONxMortlock]

I agree with most in that the loading times are certainly on the long side, however I was impressed with the demo. It ran smoothly, looked great and was very atmospheric. I really enjoyed the ranged style game.

The land battle was fun but I didn't find it that challenging. The AI did seem to have a habit of foolishly throwing one or two units into the fray against my whole army though.

Navy battle was good too once I learnt that you can make grouped units operate and move as a formation. With formation the sea battle is way too easy. You start with a strong fleet and in a perfect position. Aggressive skippers need just steer all ships straight ahead. With the weather gauge you can "cross the T" of the first French fleet. Once all ships in the line have fired, do a 180. This will bring guns to bear on both fleets. Then just sail up and down keeping the weather gauge and the French get massacred. Done it twice now without getting even close a losing a ship.

I usually stick away from pre-orders however after playing this demo I just knew that I'd buying this game at some point so I ordered it right there and then. I was expecting Steam to pre-load it however it looks like it's waiting till release so that's pretty much going to guarantee its a turd fight on release day.

[Belgolas]

Despite that, my laptop is better than the common, cheap desktops employed by most Orgahs. Thus, I experience fast loading times, and am proud to flaunt it.

Well thats because you spent more money then they did. No nid to say my PC is better then your because all you need to do is spend more and you get more. Plus laptops are more expensive and slower for the same price of a desktop every time. There hasn't been a single generation of hardware for laptops that beats desktops. Infact laptops are lagging really far behind in graphics cards compared to a desktop. A 1000 laptop will perform the same as a $600 desktop. A $3000 laptop will perform the same as a $1500 desktop.

Anyways this is far off topic.


Only a few days till the game :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Polemists]

Not to get too off topic but I tend to agree.

My own laptop is rather cheap, but then again I needed it for travel, not gaming. So now I game what I can on it. Yet I know if I was home and gaming I'd go out and spend on a desktop.

If you look on most store sites you are going to pay premium dollar to go from 256 graphics card to 512, and your going to pay extremely high to go from duo, to quad.

i7 is out now and I can assure you that in maybe 3 months a new line of desktops will be out with it.

Not saying you don't have to spend 2-3k on a desktop to keep a pc that will last you 2-3 years, but I am saying that 2-3k will go alot farther on a desktop.

Back to topic, I loved demo but really want game....this last day of Feb is soooo long.

[Sir Beane]

Not to get too off topic but I tend to agree.

My own laptop is rather cheap, but then again I needed it for travel, not gaming. So now I game what I can on it. Yet I know if I was home and gaming I'd go out and spend on a desktop.

If you look on most store sites you are going to pay premium dollar to go from 256 graphics card to 512, and your going to pay extremely high to go from duo, to quad.

i7 is out now and I can assure you that in maybe 3 months a new line of desktops will be out with it.

Not saying you don't have to spend 2-3k on a desktop to keep a pc that will last you 2-3 years, but I am saying that 2-3k will go alot farther on a desktop.

Back to topic, I loved demo but really want game....this last day of Feb is soooo long.

Laptops cost more because parts have to be made smaller and more energy efficient. They also have to be better at disappating heat. All that adds up to more expensive parts if you want them in a laptop rather than a PC.

Empire Total War in 3 more days!

How are you going to celebrate? I'll be celebrating by playing the game non-stop for as long as I can without collapsing .

[Explodingcannonballfromhell]

Anyone having the problem that units become sprites when you zoom out to much, no matter what setting i have it on the units turn very ugly from distance, like a blob of pixels moving across the screen. Its not something i have ever encountered in MTW2.

Is it something to do with my graphical settings or is the demo not optimized enough?

[A Very Super Market]

I've had that. It simply takes less memory to remember a sprite than a 3d unit. RAM probably.

[Sir Beane]

Anyone having the problem that units become sprites when you zoom out to much, no matter what setting i have it on the units turn very ugly from distance, like a blob of pixels moving across the screen. Its not something i have ever encountered in MTW2.

Is it something to do with my graphical settings or is the demo not optimized enough?

It happens in Med 2 as well, but the sprites are better so it isnt as noticable. Sprites are much easier to do from a distance than 3D, it helps stop lag when zoomed out.

[Explodingcannonballfromhell]

Hopefully the draw distance is a bit better in the full version then.

[peacemaker]

something I'm glad about is that now units load their weapons BEFORE enemies get in range. That helps a ton now...

[Belgolas]

I just played a naval battle when one of my ships was caught on fire and I guess it reached where the store the gun powder and it went up in a big explosion ripping it in 2. Nice! Too bad the enemy wasn't boarding it haha.

[Polemists]

The blowing up ship graphics is nice, I saw it on medium, and enjoyed it immensely.

Well where I live it's now March 1, do to delivery i don't get the game till March 7. So 6 more days for me, 2 or 3 more days for rest of you.

(Regular edition March 3
Special and Collector March 4)

[Sir Beane]

The blowing up ship graphics is nice, I saw it on medium, and enjoyed it immensely.

Well where I live it's now March 1, do to delivery i don't get the game till March 7. So 6 more days for me, 2 or 3 more days for rest of you.

(Regular edition March 3
Special and Collector March 4)

The ship explosion effects are fantastic on ultra. As are the air shockwave effects when cannons fire.